Tag: Thinking of You Cards

A good friend of mine has been on my heart recently; so, I wanted to make a thinking of you card to send her way. My goal was to design a non-Halloween-ish card using this week’s Pals Paper Arts colors of Tangelo Twist, Basic Black and Very Vanilla. I wanted a light, cheery feel to the card, so I selected the open patterned polka dot DSP from Modern Medley and then focused on keeping Very Vanilla as the primary color. A few rhinestone enhanced sequins added a nice clean accent to the card. Then to balance the image, I placed a simple heart in the bottom corner and accented it, also, with a rhinestone. To pull everything together, I added the adorable little bird from For the Birds to the envelope and colored the heart with Tangelo Twist.

I walked into my studio last night and decided I was going to just play and do whatever struck my fancy. I’d been wanting to make an autumn card using the Grateful for You stamp from the Merry Everything set; so, choosing my image was easy. Next stop was my DSP file; I leafed through the paper until I heard a couple of sheets “calling my name!” I really like the way these two pieces from the Color Me Autumn set complement one another. But, hmmm, the Retrosketch I had chosen for my layout seemed to lend itself to 3 different DSPs. After a couple of seconds, I realized I could use the same DSP on the right, simply by changing the direction of the pattern; the top piece has the diamonds going horizontally, while the bottom piece has the diamonds in a vertical direction. Okay, so I had my image and my paper chosen; but, none of the ribbon on my shelf seemed to work. So, I reached for my ribbon jar. Yes, I have a ribbon jar! All my scrap pieces of ribbon look beautiful in my apothecary styled jar! But, I digress. As I fingered through the ribbon scraps I saw a glimmer of gold – “Ahh, perfect!” The ribbon selection then led me to the new gold metal buttons. A loose shimmery strand from the gold baker’s twine was lying on my desk and seemed to say, “Use me, use me!” Sooo, all my decisions were made; now for the fun of putting it all together! I used the glowing technique once again and was quite pleased with the effect it gave to this stamp. Once I had the card assembled, I felt it needed just a little something more. I remembered my old Creative Memories leaf punch and decided that would offer the festive finishing touch I desired!

The calendar page has turned to September; wow, summer flew by SO quickly! With the fall months arriving and my new DSP In hand, I decided it was time to design a new quilt card. I selected one of my favorite layouts and 3 different patterns from the Flashback DSP pack. This week’s SUO challenge is to highlight at least one of SU’s wonderful embellishments. I chose one of the Vintage brads as my featured embellishment.

To make the card, I punched 1” squares from the DSPpaper. Then I cut a piece of 4×4 Very Vanilla which I proceeded to cover with double sided tape. Next, I laid out the squares (which were cut in half diagonally to form triangles) onto the adhesive, and then embossed the fully mounted piece with the Baroque EF. After mounting the image onto the various mattes, I poked a hole with the paper piercer into the middle of the “quilt” and also into the corners and then inserted the brads.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying trying many new [to me] techniques that I’ve found on my various cyber wanderings. I saw this technique implemented by Paula Dobson and just had to give it a try! ColourQ’s Challenge provided me with the palette, so I was able to jump right in and start inking! I randomly sponged Bermuda Bay, Strawberry Slush and Lucky Limeade onto a piece of Whisper White. Next, I lightly spritzed the inside of my Modern Mosaic embossing folder and then pressed the folder against my inked panel (I did not run it through the big shot). After the panel dried, I stamped my image with Night of Navy. A few rhinestones added all that was needed to complete the image. I did run my background base through the big shot using the Modern Mosaic EF, just to add some texture. This was a really fun and easy technique; I’ll definitely be sharing it in one of my upcoming technique classes!

SUO challenged us to design a clean and simple card with lots of white space. I was in the mood to play with some new stamps, so I reached for a recent gift I received, the Timeless Talk set. The telephone image captured my eye and I decided that would be my entire focal point with a simple candy dot embellishment for the phone’s dial. I liked the tone the Raspberry Ripple created beside the Basic Black, so I selected that color for my matte, as well as for coloring the candy dot. I was clipping along assembling my card, thinking, “Wow, this card is coming together in record time!” – When all of a sudden, I hit a roadblock… So, here’s what I learned after multiple attempts to stamp a clear greeting. Due to the greeting’s letter style, this greeting does not work particularly well with Versamark; I tried the ink pad, as well as the pen, and was unable to achieve an even/clear greeting. Second lesson learned, some of the rubber on my greeting needs to be trimmed away; no matter how I stamped the greeting, it continually left a faint border on the bottom left. After five tries though, I said to myself “This is a handmade card; the “extra” ink simply adds an authentic touch of truly being handmade!” I walked away pleased with the card and a smile on my face.

Now that my husband and I are empty nesters, I look forward with great excitement to the times when we have all of our “kids” and their spouses/boyfriend under one roof together for an extended period of time. We have an upcoming beach trip that I’m very eagerly awaiting! So, my mind has been flitting to beach scenes. Today’s card took many twists and turns along the way. It went from a crisp, clean image, to a “dirtied, beachy” image. I was pleased with the way the Stylish Stripes EF complimented the Lullaby DSP. To add just a bit of style, I used a small hole punch on the shell’s matte to accent the focal image. The first version of this card, I simply stamped the shell with a darker color on top of the En Francais; I was not pleased. So, next, I stamped it with Early Espresso and quickly sprinkled on some clear embossing powder and then heat set. I sponged it with some crumb cake and still felt it was too drab; so, I added a bit of Pink Pirouette and some white gel pen. It’s difficult to differentiate the colors; but, in person the pink and white do show through and offer the hint of contrast that I desired. Finally, to finish the card for the Paper Players’ challenge, I added a Naturals Designer button with some linen thread.
STAMPIN UP STAMP(S): By the Seashore, En Francais
STAMPIN UP INK: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, white gel pen
STAMPIN UP CARDSTOCK/DSP: Soft Suede, Lost Lagoon, Very Vanilla, Lullaby DSP
ACCESSORIES: Stylish Stripes EF, Naturals Designer button, linen thread, clear embossing powder, heat tool, sponge, hole punch, dimensionals

Polka Dots and Tart and Tangy worked together to make this summer card for the Friday Mashup Challenge! The challenge was to use a background stamp and mash it up by adding something 3-D. On this hot summer day, a thirst quenching drink seemed to be just the right image to portray!

I cut the two end edges of a rectangular piece of vellum at a 1/2″ angle; then, I brayered the vellum with Daffodil Delight and sponged the top of the drink line with Rose Red. Next I applied some 2 way glue to the rim of the glass and sprinkled the wet glue with Dazzling Diamonds for a beautiful shimmery finish.

To visually tie the card together, I carried the color gradation from the glass directly to the background, using Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, and Rose Red polka dots. Note Pumpkin Pie ink was not used on the glass itself; but, the combining of Daffodil Delight and Rose Red did create a Pumpkin Pie tone.

The vellum glass is a popular idea on Pinterest. While I saw many variations of this glass; I did not learn who to credit as the original designer.